This invention relates to wireless camera devices, including but not limited to video camera devices and still image devices, and it relates to a wireless camera system comprising a self contained wireless camera device in combination with a base station device. It also relates to an architecture for provision of peripheral devices in such a system.
Simple master-slave portable wireless video recording devices have been proposed in the past, designed to produce video and associated signals and transmit these wirelessly to a recording station. U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,893 describes one such analog device, in which start and stop (i.e. pause) operation of the recording station is controlled from the camera station. Communication of images from the camera station to the recording station is over a VHF or UHF radio channel
The establishment by the Federal Communications Commission of a nonrestrictive usage frequency band in the 5 GHz range, with channel bandwidth capability for high throughput multimedia data transmission creates a new opportunity for wireless consumer devices having broader bandwidth capability than has heretofore been possible. The ability to efficiently use these frequencies requires greater attention to be given to bandwidth management.
Functionality of previously proposed wireless camera devices has been fairly limited and such devices have so far found little or no acceptance in the consumer marketplace. There is believed to be a demand for a compact, highly functional, broadband wireless camera device.